Two to One It Happens: Dynamic Phonology in Two Sign Languages

The historically attested change of two-handed signs on the face to one-handed variants, which occurs in two historically related sign languages, French Sign Language (FSL) and American Sign Language (ASL), is used to test variation theory. The results of the study support viewing languages in a dynamic framework: The change from two-handed to one-handed signs patterns implicationally (in similar orders for French and American signers). FSL, however, is undergoing the change significantly more slowly than ASL. Older signers of both languages retain more of the older two-handed forms than do younger signers. Within the ASL area, Black Southern signers preserve more of the two-handed signs than do other U. S. signers.